VA General Assembly: Just say no

The city would contribute $195 million. The state will be asked for $150 million, of which $70 million would be for the arena, and Comcast-Spectacor, the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment company that would lease and operate the arena and is working to recruit the pro sports team, would put in $35 million.

So, the company that came a’calling for the new arena, is only willing to put up less than 10% of the proposed $380 million cost. The rest of the money is to come from taxpayers.

Del. Bob Tata of Virginia Beach, an appropriations committee member, called the arena concept “pie in the sky.”

“This is a beer and pretzel town,” he said. “Realistically, if I had to vote on it, I’d vote no. I just can’t see. Pro sports, it’s a tough racket. It’s here today, gone tomorrow.”

[…]

“My initial response is, I’m not in favor of it,” said Del. Chris Jones of Suffolk, also an appropriations committee member. “In tight economic times, taking away from other core functions of government, I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do.”

Jones is dead on. There is no “extra” money in the state budget for such frivolous things as an arena. The localities have been under tremendous financial pressure these last few years, as the money allocated from the state has been reduced. If there is an extra $150 million lying around, I’d much prefer it go to the localities to help restore the lost funding, particularly to the schools.

With all the water issues and flooding we have in this area and instead you want the state to put money in a stadium seems crazy. Maybe they should work on fixing some of the problems we have in the state first.

Unlike all the other nonsense the politicians call “investments,” this one really is. We have an estimate of the costs (double them for the sake of reality), and we can estimate the payout. If this were a Good Investment, private financing would be readily available. The Lord of the Rings cost $285M, and I don’t think it got any government funding whatsoever.

I started this blog in 2006 to talk about local politics, specifically Norfolk politics. It is impossible to talk about Norfolk in a vacuum, so you'll also find some regional, state, and national politics. And sometimes, no politics at all.

The inspiration for this blog comes from one of Virginia's most respected forefathers:

"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."

Thomas Jefferson, 1820

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